


That I May Dream a Little Longer

by LeastExpected_Archivist



Category: The Lord of the Rings - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Interspecies, M/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2002-02-04
Updated: 2002-02-04
Packaged: 2021-03-07 01:21:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 540
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26478646
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LeastExpected_Archivist/pseuds/LeastExpected_Archivist
Summary: By Pythoness.Legolas mulls things over a night or two after Aragorn's funeral.  Can be seen as a sequel to "Fragment From Near the End."
Relationships: Gimli (Son of Glóin)/Legolas Greenleaf
Kudos: 3
Collections: Least Expected





	That I May Dream a Little Longer

**Author's Note:**

> Note from Amy Fortuna, the archivist: this story was originally archived at [Least Expected](http://fanlore.org/wiki/Least_Expected), which has been offline since 2002. To preserve the archive, I began manually importing its works to the AO3 as an Open Doors-approved project in August 2017. I e-mailed all creators about the move and posted announcements, but may not have reached everyone. If you are (or know) this creator, please contact me using the e-mail address on the [Least Expected collection profile](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/leastexpected/profile).
> 
> Disclaimer: The characters in this pastiche, which is written exclusively for the enjoyment of myself and friends, belong entirely to J.R.R. Tolkien and his estate, and this pastiche is not meant to infringe in any way upon their rights.  
>  Feedback: Feedback is always welcome.  
>  Story Notes: Thanks to Missy and Amy, without whose depressing vignettes I wouldn't have been inspired to write this one. ;-)

Legolas shifted into consciousness in the dim dappled starlight after moonset, as Elessar's eyes resolved into light and shade on the beams of the ceiling, and the gulls' wheeling voices to the liquid warble of a distant nightjar. For a few minutes he lay and watched the shadows, and even as he thought on their loveliness his heart was desolate. 

*I shall never see my Elessar again,* he thought. *If Gimli would follow, I would take that road, but it is closed to us. There is no path without an end.* 

Beside him Gimli lay still deeply asleep, snoring softly, one wide hand loosely closed on his chest, the other curled by his head.   
Beneath the seafoam-colored beard his broad breast rose and fell, like the gentle swells of an outgoing tide. 

*I am seeing the sea in everything,* Legolas thought, and drew himself up to study his lover. 

He was still stout and strong, muscles gnarled and hardened with age like the sturdy shapes of wind-stunted trees, though his skin had grown drier and less resilient; it hung a little slack from his frame, and the hair of his breast and body and arm was grizzled, more grey than black. 

A brittleness had crept into him in recent years, a stiffness and a weariness, a forgetfulness that Legolas feared, knowing it for what it was. Gimli did not breathe as deeply now, and his once-powerful heart did not beat as strongly, as when Elessar was crowned--long ago in the memory of Gondor, though Legolas reckoned the passing of the years differently. 

But for all that, Gimli was strong, still. 

*It will not be today,* thought Legolas, *nor tomorrow. Perhaps not for a year, perhaps not even for five...A! Gimli: my time with you has been so short- and without you it will be so long...* 

He would not for all his own pain wake Gimli prematurely to renewed grief, yet he ached for him to wake. He longed for a touch, an embrace, a word: to find solace in the moment, when there was no comfort to be looked for in the longer span. Legolas' hand moved, yearning, in the air an inch above Gimli's beard, his hard worn hands, his face--the same beloved face, though scored deep with years of thought and laughter, indelibly set now with an image of the spirit within--but did not brush where it might disturb. *Wake, my lover,* he begged soundlessly, *and comfort me, that I may dream a little longer...* 

But Gimli slept on peacefully. He had ridden hard to bid farewell to the king, and his weary sleep was sound. 

Legolas remembered Elessar's eyes in his dream, secret and unfathomable, and the ache in his heart grew to overwhelm him. He laid his head down beside Gimli's wide shoulder, close enough to feel its warmth on his brow, and he wept, silent and desperate, his hands clenched at his breast as if he could hold by force what he felt slipping from him. 

But his tears had dried, and there was no sign of them, many hours before Gimli awoke. That they had been shed before for his sake, and would be again, Gimli never knew. 

END


End file.
